Week One, 2024

I’m going to start writing these again in 2024. Its a pretty low-stress way to get blogging and writing more.

Today marks half a year back in Canada. We are still getting settled, and really miss England.

We got a dog just a week before Christmas, and he’s been pretty life-changing already. He gets a big walk and a couple of short walks a day, so my wife and I have both noticed an increase in our step counts! Fortunately he’s generally a good sleeper, and isn’t given to getting into things, so the process of getting him integrated has been pretty much positive. We spend a lot more time outside, and have been going on way more walks together.

#Reading#

One Billion Years to the End of the World by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, the authors of Roadside Picnic. I started this one ages ago, and lost it. I’ve picked it back up. It’s funny, and clever, although very much of the time and place it was written.

Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear. Pretty sure this was the inspiration behind Pandorum. Another one I put down while in the midst of our international move, and have just now picked back up.

Cyberpunk 2077: No Coincidence. A solid cyberpunk read. I picked it up while at A&E, when I didn’t have my other books to read.

#Watching# My wife and I are still working our way through Angel. We’ve also watched The Shrink Next Door, but man that’s a stressful, cringey watch. I have to be in the mood.

I just watched Donnie Darko. It was good. I also watched Silent Hill. It was not.

#Playing

Got a Steam Deck for Birthmas (a refurb of the discontinued 512GB)! As with any PC, I had a tonne of downloading to do, but I quickly slapped Vampire Survivors on there so I could get it up and running. It’s a blast. One of the nicest pieces of hardware I’ve handled in a while.

I got back into Destiny 2 so I could play with my brother and nephew. The whole game seems even more opaque to me, but it was fun clicking on alien heads with family.

Nearly done the remake of Dead Space. It’s very good. Maybe I’m playing on a higher difficulty than I did first time around, but I’m finding myself just a little underpowered, and starved of ammo. I vaguely remember the first time around feeling a bit overpowered by end game.

Still playing Fallout 76 on-and-off. For me the game is the most fun when you’re playing the earliest bits. I started a new character back in the summer, and have her up to about level 20. I’m enjoying the new locations in the starter area. Played a bit of FO3, but that’s a game where you really miss the quality-of-life updates from the last decade-and-a-half.